February 14, 2016

I LOVE office supplies. Weird, I know. The first day of school with blank notebooks, spanking new crayons and freshly sharpened pencils, has got to be one of my favorite days of the year. My husband knows this. My kids know this. And a very select group of friends (up until now, anyway) know this.

You can keep the candy and flowers. If you really want to wow me, send a selection of nice pens or some monogrammed post it notes. No Christmas, birthday or Mother's Day is complete without fancy note cards or a new set of Sharpie's. If they should all happen to match... well, all the better!

I have friends who find clothes shopping irresistible. I hate shopping. But if I should happen into say, Staples, I might while away a few minutes wandering up and down the aisles thinking up uses for some fancy tape or gold paper clips. Something else I love is writing, and recording our family's journey in this blog. Writing is how I collect my thoughts, decompress, and mull things over until it makes sense. And truly writing has been an elusive thing since Addison was born. In large part, because of time. I don't have any. And in a smaller part, because my office has disappeared into Allen's office and lab and storage and whatever else happens to be in what was formerly our school room. So for some time there hasn't been a quiet place for me to write.

So imagine my surprise and sheer joy when my birthday rolled around last week. And Brianna said, "Mom, come to the school room for your present." And imagine my excitement when I saw the top of my desk (I mean the actual top surface) which has been covered with the kids computer for some long time. And in place of that ugly old thing was a collection of beautiful gold and pink office supplies. And a spot for my laptop. And a makeover here at Art's Chili Pepper. And a brand new beautiful chair where I can unwind, gather my thoughts, peruse my photos and invest some time in one of my favorite sorts of therapy.

Welcome to Mom's Thoughtful Spot.

"Halfway between Pooh's house and Piglet's house was a Thoughtful Spot where they met sometimes when they had decided to go and see each other, and as it was warm and out of the wind they would sit down there for a little and wonder what they would do now that they had seen each other. One day when they had decided not to do anything, Pooh made up a verse about it, so that everybody should know what the place was for."

Kathleen Wachter

Most of all I am a Christian, wife and home school mom to nine. Here you will find snippets from my life, recipes, tips for child rearing, home schooling advice and moments from our journey with down syndrome.